Using the files or directory exclusion filters is good if you can put up with two inherent restrictions: you have to know the names of the files or directories to exclude before the backup starts and you have to accept that the excluded directories do not appear at all in the archive. The first condition is next to impossible to meet with log, cache and temporary directories, as the names of the contained files and directories are not known beforehand and change over time. The second restriction is simply inconvenient if you are migrating your site to a different server: you might want to have this directory created, even if it's empty, because otherwise some component - which looks for this particular directory - might fail! Well, now you have the Skip Directory Contents filters, which is actually two filters in one!
The Skip Files filter works in a straightforward manner. Choose a directory and rest assured that all of its files - and its files only - will not appear in the backup. You don't have to know the file names beforehand; JoomlaPack will simply not try to list this directory's files at all when performing the backup. However, some special files will be included if they exist in the directory at the time of the backup:
.htaccess
index.htm
index.html
robots.txt
These special files are commonly used by webmasters and web developers to protect files and directories from unauthorized access. We wouldn't like JoomlaPack to compromise you site's security when you migrate it to a different host or, generally, restore it to an empty host; therefore we chose to not skip these special files.
![]() | Tip |
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Skip Files should be used on log, cache and temporary directories to avoid backing up useless files, or - most importantly - risking backup failure on extremely slow hosts. JoomlaPack automatically does that for you for the log, cache and temporary directories of Joomla! itself. If you have any extensions with directories of this nature, you'll have to enable this filter on them manually. |
The Skip Directories filter is much simpler in operation. Choose a directory and rest assured that no subdirectories of it will be included at all in the backup set. There are no exceptions and you can not force some of the subdirectories to be immune to this filter. It's all or nothing.
The great thing about those two filters is that they can work in parallel. Activating each of them does not affect the area where the other would operate. For example, if you apply only the Skip Files filter on a directory, its files will not be backed up but its subdirectories will be backed up. On the other hand, if you select only the Skip Directories filter, its subdirectories will be excluded from the backup while its files will be backed up normally.
![]() | Tip |
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Skip Directories should be used on log, cache and temporary directories to avoid backing up useless files, or - most importantly - risking backup failure on extremely slow hosts. JoomlaPack automatically does that for you for the log, cache and temporary directories of Joomla! itself. If you have any extensions with directories of this nature, you'll have to enable this filter on them manually. |
The best way to fully grasp the power and function of these filters is to perform a few trial backups playing with them and comparing the results.
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The settings on this page are defined per profile. Make sure you have selected the desired profile in the page. |
The page operates in an explorer like interface. Just below the page's title you can see the path to the current directory, relative to the site's root, in bold letters. Below it, there is a table displaying the subdirectories of the active directory. Each row displays two links entitled "Toggle Files" and "Toggle Directories" respectively and finally the subdirectory's name.
Clicking on "Toggle Files" toggles the exclusion status of the contained files of this subdirectory. If nothing is filtered, it appears on blue type and clicking it enables the filter. If the filter is active, it appears in green type and clicking it disables the filter. If this particular subdirectory is already excluded by the Directory Exclusion Filters, it appears in gray italicized type and clicking on it has no effect whatsoever.
Clicking on "Toggle Directories" toggles the exclusion status of the contained subdirectories of this subdirectory. If nothing is filtered, it appears on blue type and clicking it enables the filter. If the filter is active, it appears in green type and clicking it disables the filter. If this particular subdirectory is already excluded by the Directory Exclusion Filters, it appears in gray italicized type and clicking on it has no effect whatsoever.
Clicking on the directory name will make that directory current. If the subdirectory exclusion filter or the regular directory exclusion filter is active, then the affected directories have their names appear in red bold type.